Jacknoir Poker Blog

MIAMI, Florida — PTseats.com recently launched the only on- line booking service for tournament poker spots with its first casino partner, the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The online booking agency offers fast, secure and convenient tickets to play poker at tournaments anywhere in the United States, a press release said.

According to Fabricio Schaffrath, the company’s founder, “Booking through PTseats.com allows players to secure a poker tournament seat anywhere, anytime, from any computer. It’s fast and easy. And it’s convenient for both the players and the casinos.”

To purchase a seat, the public must create an account, select their preferred location and pay in advance using a credit or debit card. The cost of a guaranteed buy-in seat at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City varies according to the tournament. PTseats.com charges a service fee for the transaction that is a percentage of the buy-in price.

“PTseats.com is perfect for any tournament player that wants to have a guaranteed seat without waiting in long registration lines,” said Tom Gitto, director of Poker Operations at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. “Our tournament players love it.”

Phil Gordon, a WTC champion and best-selling author, was an early supporter of PTseats.com. “This is a great, convenient service that I’m sure players will love,” he commented.

Mr. Gordon is contributing a monthly column to the website. His first two pieces, available at http://www.ptseats.com/phil.php, discuss using patience and aggression at the table.

According to Mr. Schaffrath, the ticketing website is also negotiating with other gaming interests throughout the United States. “The concept has been well received overall. Casinos benefit from the shorter lines and reduced staff needed to handle registration and by having less cash to handle on the spot,” he said.

Currently, PTseats.com accepts credit and debit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB. On its website, the company uses Verisign Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, the industry standard for secure on-line commercial transactions.

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MONTREAL, Quebec — Everest Poker has announced the names of fifteen players who had won seats in the upcoming online finale of the Everest Poker Avalanche event.

According to the press release issued here, the Everest Poker Avalanche is a $1,000,000 guaranteed Texas hold ‘em event that combines online and live poker play. The players from the most recent event, held on August 25th, will play in the online finale, held on September 17, 2007 at 15:00 GMT.

“The players from this event will participate in one of the most unique tournaments we have offered our players,” said Jonathan May, Everest Poker property manager.

When the final ten players are reached in our online finale, the game will stop and reconvene on a Costa Cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Onboard, they’ll enjoy the famous Everest Poker hospitality and compete for their share of the $1,000,000 final prize!

The winners of the August 25th event are as follows: BESTBOBY51 (France), —yoni— (France), masteryowi (Spain), dewi-64 (France), Valo (The Netherlands), v_G (The Netherlands), gandaki (Italy), The_SeS (The Netherlands), bambinus (Brazil), poci (Italy), AAvince66AA (France), anigma (Australia), staif31 (France), hardy0815 (Switzerland), and CARLOS@P (Colombia).

Spanning nine months, the Everest Poker Avalanche involves both online play as well as live poker games. The tournament features a three-round structure that allows players at all levels to join in. Round 1 satellites are designed for players looking for little up-front risk: buy-ins are $3+.30 or $11+1. Round 2 satellites are ideal for players that are more confident in their ability and wish to save time - the buy-in is $56+5.

For players with big bankrolls that want to skip right to the top, Everest Poker is offering two choices: one final Round 3 Everest Poker Avalanche satellite event, held on September 8th with a $530+30 buy-in or direct entrance to the Online Everest Poker Avalanche Finale for $5000+300.

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FTOPS is back again at Full Tilt Poker, but with a big bang this time, promising sums as huge as $7 Million. This month, FTOPS V will offer more events, more money, and more chances to Learn, Chat and Play with the world’s best pros.

Last May, they had guaranteed $4 million in prize money during FTOPS IV and, thanks to the incredible turnout they’ve received, the players here, competed for nearly $6 million in combined prize money in 10 separate events. Now, they are raising the stakes again to $7m guaranteed split across 14 events.

Join them starting on August 8th when they kick off the largest series of guaranteed tournaments in the history of Full Tilt Poker. FTOPS V incredible events, include a $2,500 + $120 two-day event featuring a $600K prize pool, the gigantic $2 million Main Event featuring the largest single guarantee they’ve ever offered and the Satellite Challenge, giving you multiple chances to win entry into tournament and cash.

FTOPS will felicitate players with some cool prizes. Players who finish in the money in any FTOPS V tournament will receive a limited-edition FTOPS baseball cap, players who reach the final table in any FTOPS V tournament will receive a baseball cap and a limited-edition FTOPS jacket and players who win an FTOPS V tournament will receive the baseball cap and jacket, along with a gold FTOPS jersey and a gold jersey avatar for use on Full Tilt Poker.

Meanwhile, bloggers have criticized Full Tilt Poker’s move to host the FTOPS tournament frequently. They say that holding the FTOPS tournament every couple of months is sort of “cheapening the event”.

An article with Poker-king.com says that FTOPS should be restricted as an annual event. “The Full Tilt Poker team needs to follow Pokerstars’ (WCOOP) lead and hold the FTOPS every year (preferably in the summer when many of the younger players are home from school for the summer.) They need to build up the FTOPS and its brand, and they can do this by limiting the event to once per year,” the report says.

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Last night I played two 10 player Sit&Gos at Paradise Poker - I will add the review soon (reminder to myself) - and I seem to be improving as I finished 2nd and 4th. In the first game I played my best poker of the night: Very disciplined and patient although I was short stacked for the most of the time. I waited until I got the right hands and eliminated 3 players in all-in showdowns. When I was heads-up against the last opponent it was - as it always seems to be - a question of getting and playing the right hands, and I came out short in a tight draw.

In my last game I started playing hands that I really should have folded. Damn me, but fortunately I hit two pairs a couple of times and made my risks worth while. I finished 4th even though 3 hands earlier I was 2nd in chips, because of the player with the short stack which I thought were tilting as he went all-in 3-4 times in a row. On the third time he did this I called him preflop with A2s only to face his QQ which made a set on the flop and I was out. I misread his moves as he was not tilting but on a roll of good hands. Well, still I am pleased with my game which I think is getting more disciplined. At least I am not throwing all away on stupid hands anymore after loosing with a good hand.

One of my favorite hands from last night was when I had A8s and limped in from middle position to see two more cards to my flush on the flop. There were 3 players still in the hand and they were betting medium bets which I called. I got my nuts flush on the turn - a king which apparantly made a strong hand for one of the other players who betted more aggresively. The remaining players folded and I bluffed and hesitated a long time before calling the bet. On the river he betted even more and I waited a bit and raised him and he was caught - not believing that I had the flush because I had hesitated on the turn. That was a great hand indeed. I love playing A + some medium card suited…

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I am going away to our house in Sweden this week so I won’t have time - or possibility - to blog all week. However I did get time to play a $10 Sit&Go at Paradise Poker last night and finished 4th (again!). I am happy about my play though, was just unlucky to loose with A J against 8 7 when I went all in pre-flop. My general problem when I play is that I tilt when I take a beating which means I loose my patience and play hands that I shouldn’t - I tried to control this last night and I think I succeeded pretty well. Even though I got down to 300 chips against the other stacks of 3-5000, I kept my cool and waited for the right time to go for it and got back in the game. When there were only 4 of us left we were all equal in stacks so I might as well have gone all the way…

I really need to practice controlling my temper - especially if I ever want to play live games (which I really don’t see myself doing anytime soon). There is nothing worse than having played a tournament well for several hours only to loose it all after a bad beat, because you play the next 3-4 hands even though you only get hands like 7 2, 3 6 and 5 9…

Well - have a great Easter all of you!!

Want to play poker this Easter - Titan Poker is the place to do so! Read my review to see why…

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